Various different garment folding machines are available in the relevant market which purport to minimize garment rippling and the like, but are known to jam conveyor systems or negatively affect an operation's output. As with any production driven operation, down time is critical to an operation which determines profit based to any extent on the principle of mass production. When garments become trapped within garment folding machinery a number of factors such as maintenance repair costs, contractual production delays, etc. contribute to the many losses in the market. This is particularly commonplace in the competitive textile markets. As it relates to garment folding machines or machinery which utilize a conveyor transport principle which pushes garments from above through a series of folding plates, garment rippling has been a major cause for down-time and, subsequently, a contributing element to profit losses.
An improved garment folding machine which utilizes a pulling belt technique, as herein described, has been lacking in the industry as a means to alleviate the aforementioned problems.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,260, issued to King, discloses an article folding and packaging system for folding and packaging articles such as towels or T-shirts, wherein the article is partially folded over a cardboard insert and conveyed along a path at a selected speed through various folding locations until the article is folded, flattened, pressed, rotated if necessary, and inserted into a bag which is subsequently sealed. The apparatus for performing such function includes a reciprocating entry section for receiving one or more articles. The '260 patent teaches only a single, upper conveyor for moving garments into the folding machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,806,007 to Grantham, discusses a folder for folding garments such as T-shirts, with means for inserting cards in the T-shirts and folding the T-shirts about the cards; means for placing a group, such as three, folded T-shirts in a package and selectively inserting cards in one or more of the T-shirts in such package in the formation thereof. The teaching of the '007 patent is also limited to an upper belt conveyor used to move garments into the folding machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,207, issued to Gore, discloses a single feed belt apparatus for averting and folding a pillowcase, bag, or the like. The disclosed apparatus comprises means for averting the pillowcase from the wrong-side-out position to a right-side-out position, and first and second conveyor means. However, these two conveyor means are arranged to cooperate in series not in parallel.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,828,989, issued to Heater, discusses a single conveyor belt apparatus for folding a T-shirt or other textile articles, the article is folded in from opposite sides over the top of guide plates by overlying folding plates with inner folding edges that converge toward one another. The single conveyor feeds the shirt into the folding plates from below only.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,115 to Kosrow et al. is directed to a method and apparatus for forming a shirt sleeve. The disclosed invention utilizes a single conveyor for feeding material to a serving station.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.